We Are Being Lied To - MoveOn Civic Action & The Other 98% Flash Mob

I participated in this action on Monday June 6th, if you look closely you can see me in the top left hand corner holding a piece of the letter "W" (see the still photo below)...

Earlier this week, our amazing members joined MoveOn in putting together a flash mob of concerned citizens standing on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street, with one simple message for financial elites: We Are Being Lied To.

Click on photo to enlarge

thanks to Dennis P. Osorio for the photo

NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli Audit Identifies Discrepancies in Dropout Rate Reported by NYC Department of Education

The dropout rate among New York City public school students is higher than claims made by the city Department of Education (DoE), according to an audit released by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. DiNapoli’s auditors found that for the 2004 through 2008 school years, the dropout rate may have been as high as 16.5 percent, rather than the 13 percent cited by DoE. As a result, the graduation rate may have been as low as 62.9 percent, rather than the 65.5 percent reported by DoE.

“The city school system needs to sharpen its pencils when it comes to knowing which kids are dropping out and which kids are transferring to another school,” said DiNapoli. “DoE should be doing its homework and making sure the right papers are turned in to back up the reasons why students are leaving school.”

High school graduation and dropout rates are regarded as important indicators of a school’s effectiveness.


While the audit considered reported rates within 5 percent of audited rates to be generally accurate, the difference means that the graduation rate and discharge rate include thousands of students who actually dropped out.

DiNapoli’s auditors attribute the discrepancy to DoE’s erroneous classification of dropout students as having been “discharged” from high school. Discharged students should only be categorized as such when they transfer to another school or another educational program, leave the country, or are deceased.

DiNapoli’s auditors examined DoE’s discharge records for its 2004-08 general education cohort (the group of students who entered ninth grade in 2004 and were expected to graduate four years later), and found that in a random sample of 500 “discharged” students, 74 (14.8 percent) didn’t have the required documentation. As a result, all 74 should have been classified as dropouts.

Projecting the results of the sample to the entire cohort, DiNapoli’s auditors found that the correct graduation rate for the cohort was between 62.9 and 63.6 percent, rather than the 65.5 percent reported by DoE, and the correct dropout rate was between 15.5 and 16.5 percent, rather than the 13.0 percent reported by DoE. At some individual high schools, the correct graduation rates could be lower, and the correct dropout rates higher, than DoE reported.

According to DoE, the city’s 2004-08 general education cohort had a total of 88,612 students, of whom 46,896 graduated, 15,368 were still enrolled after four years, 17,025 were discharged, and 9,323 dropped out.

DiNapoli’s auditors also examined DoE’s discharge classifications for its 2004-08 special education cohort and identified similar errors. Auditors estimated that the correct graduation rate for this cohort was between 8.9 and 9.3 percent, rather than the 9.7 percent reported by DoE, and the correct dropout rate was between 20.6 and 23.8 percent, rather than the 17.2 percent reported by DoE. Even with the identified error rate, the NYC graduation rate is trending upwards as reported by DoE.

DiNapoli recommended that DoE officials:

• Ensure that DoE discharge guidelines fully align with New York State Education Department (SED) regulations;
• Instruct all schools to adhere to the SED regulations for discharge classifications, and provide training in the regulations for school staff who administer discharges; and
• Conduct periodic reviews of discharge classifications to determine whether they are being made and documented in accordance with SED regulations.

DoE officials generally agreed with DiNapoli’s recommendations and indicated they have taken action or will be taking action to implement them. Most notably, DoE’s guidelines were amended before the 2009-10 school year to better align with SED’s guidelines on required documentation to support a discharge classification. Click here for a copy of the report.

Wendi C. Thomas: Cussin' Calls Say Junior's No Gent » The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN

Here's a must read about Harold Ford, Jr. from Memphis columnist, Wendi C. Thomas...h/t: Albany Times-Union Capitol Confidential - A.M. Roundup...

Read original...

Dear New Yorkers:

Perhaps you don't read the Memphis newspaper, but thanks to the miracle of the Interwebs, I'm hoping this important message will find its way to Northern climes.

Former congressman Harold Ford Jr., who, depending on the day and the audience, might claim to be from this neck of the woods, is now pondering whether he wants to represent you Yankees by challenging and beating U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary.

I wouldn't know Gillibrand if she kicked me in the shins, but Junior, as we call him down here, I know fairly well since I've written about him many times.

Junior was facing Republican Bob Corker in the general election for U.S. Senate nearly four years ago. Just about every time I'd write a column that touched on Junior -- before and during the race -- I'd get a late Sunday afternoon call from him.

Because I contend he's a flip-flopping opportunist who pimps God for his purposes and didn't always vote in his constituents' best interest (his vote for the bankruptcy bill would be one stunning failure) and whose integrity could be measured in milligrams, not pounds, we often did not agree.

But my boss discourages me from using every curse word I know when talking with someone with whom I disagree.

Junior has no such compunction or personal guidelines.

In our late Sunday afternoon phone calls, Junior would start out pleasant and turn nasty quick -- something I'm sure many of his former aides could relate to.

Junior had the courtesy to introduce himself on the phone, and then the profanity would fly. A brief cussing out wouldn't warrant much mention, but Junior either had a lot to say or liked to hear himself talk -- maybe a little of both.

After a few of these calls, I realized that my presence really wasn't necessary. I could set the phone down, fry an egg, eat it, come back and Junior would still be on a tear.

Now, I don't expect politicians to be enduringly polite, especially with their critics. And if I had a dime for every such conversation (if you can call it that) we had, I'd probably only have 70 cents.

But while I was listening to Junior, a quote I'd heard about character came to mind.

It's attributed to advice columnist Abigail Van Buren and it goes like this: The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.

I could not do Junior any good, unless ceasing to write about him would be good for him. And in those conversations, I could have hung up, but honestly, I wanted to see just how far he'd go, just how crude he'd get, how hot his temper was, what kind of man he was when no one was watching.

And it wasn't pretty, as I'm sure many politicians' behavior isn't pretty when they think or hope no one is watching. (Appalachian Trail trip, departing from Argentina, anyone?)

But I haven't seen or heard from Junior in awhile.

The Democrat-depending-on-the-day has been scarce since he lost his Senate race. Junior's chances then of beating a Republican in a red state with a blue left corner were never good.

Since then, he has moved to New York, gotten married and gotten his first real job as vice chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

He has taken a leave from his job to explore whether he should run. He has also changed his stance on gay rights -- he was against gay marriage, now he's for it.

So voters may be inclined to think that Junior has grown and changed, isn't the kind of man who would be abusive to journalists or staff.

He's in a new environment, in a more liberal, educated pool of voters. Maybe now the real Junior can emerge -- a politician whose public and private words and deeds New Yorkers and Tennesseans could be proud of.

But then, I remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

W Trailer - The Film by Oliver Stone...

The trailer for Oliver Stone's new movie - "W"

Addabbo Campaign Challenges Maltese Says - Show Me the Math - Maltese Stakes False Claim to Outdated Tax Cuts as Current

Maltese Voted Against Pataki’s 1995 Cut to the Personal Income Tax

Republican Serf Maltese continues in his pathetic attempt to distort Joe Addabbo's record in an effort to mislead the voters and hide from his own record.

A recent mailing which voters of the 15^th Senate District received over the weekend erroneously claimed that this year Maltese cut state taxes, including the income tax.

In fact, this year alone the State Legislature INCREASED taxes 17 times, totaling over $1.3 billion. Investigation by the Addabbo Campaign reveals that sadly, Maltese is running on former Governors Pataki old record of tax cuts. Moreover, Maltese voted against Governor Pataki’s 1995 cut to the Personal Income Tax (PIT). The piece fails to cite any source material and relies on made up mathematics, pulling numbers out of nowhere to render a $4,068 difference between Addabbo and Maltese’s record. In addition, Maltese claims responsibility for cutting the New York City sales tax when in fact such a measure is subject to “home rule” which means it is submitted by the City Council to Albany for approval.

“Maltese’s math couldn’t pass a high school algebra test. If a 15 year-old student is required to cite his sources and show his work, then certainly we should hold a 75 year-old senator to the same standard of proof. You can’t vote against a cut to the PIT in 1995 and claim you didn’t in 2008. Maybe Maltese needs a refresher course in Logic 101,” said Addabbo spokesperson Alexis Grenell.

Maltese’s supposed tax cuts, which he claims happened this year, date back as far as 1997:

• CHILD CREDIT: Chapter 62 of 2006

• CLOTHING EXEMPTION: Chapter 63 of 2000

• STAR Program: Chapter 389 of 1997

• GAS TAX CAP: Chapter 35 of 2006

In additon, fails to mention the 360 tax increases he has voted for in his 20-year career including the following bills regarding the New York City Sales Tax:

2008: Budget Bill S.6807-C: Authorizes NYC to Continue to Impose a 4% Sales & Use Tax After August 1, 2008

2005: Budget Bill S.3671: Makes Sales Tax reporting requirements for Manhattan parking vendors permanent, maintaining $700,000 in annual revenue

2003: Budget Bill S.1406-B: Increases the NYC Sales Tax by 1/8 of 1 percent from June 2003 through June 2005. Also reinstates sales taxation on clothing and footwear priced under $110

2003: S.4968: Extends the authority for NYC to continue to tax certain services taxed exclusively in NYC.

However, the Councilman’s record and experience as a tax cutter are clear - while serving on the Council he has voted twice to lower property taxes and supported a $400 rebate to homeowners.

This most recent mail piece once again cites the Councilman’s vote to temporarily raise the personal income and sales tax in response to the budget crisis caused by 9/11. As previously stated, both increases have since expired as intended.

“He’s recycling old material because he’s got nothing new to show for himself or the district. You can’t run a campaign on outdated accomplishments. The world has changed yet Maltese is still stuck in the Pataki era,” added Grenell.

Despite tough fiscal times, Joe Addabbo delivered over $30 million for the district in aid for schools, parks, libraries, youth activities, senior services, and public safety.

Cuts sustained in this year's city budget, totaling $288 million, were the result of difficult choices forced by the Senate Republicans' failure to stand up for New York City residents. Legislative leaders in Albany give New York City far less than it receives from the City's residents through various revenue streams, including income, real estate and sales taxes. While Joe Addabbo fought for record restorations to the city budget including a 7% cut in city property taxes and $18 million for senior citizen services, Serf Maltese voted with his Republican colleagues for a budget which delivered yet another year of record funding for Long Island and the suburbs, depriving New York City residents of over $11 billion.

New Ad Campaign Features Bloomberg, Praises School Scores - NY1: Education

More propaganda from the NYC Department of Education...

Read original...

Watch video report...

The city unveiled an ad touting the progress made in city schools Wednesday.

The $1 million ad campaign is being launched by the not-for-profit group “Fund For Public Schools.”

The ad focuses on students’ higher standardized math and reading test scores as well as a higher graduation rate.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears in the ad and gives credit to the parents, teachers and students for the higher marks.

The mayor has been on a crusade to show off improvement in education. Earlier this week, he touted the school satisfaction rate among parents.

Scores climbed 9 points in math this year alone, with about 74 percent of students in third grade through eighth grade showing proficiency.

The Fund For Public Schools is the largest provider of private money to the public school system. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is the group's chairman.

CrooksandLiars.com - Bush is a Fascist..Olbermann Special Comment on FISA

Countdown’s Keith Olbermann and guest Rachel Maddow look at the derailment of the straight talkin’ Maverick John McCain into the craven torture-endorsing flip-flopper that appears to have sold his integrity for the endorsement of the Republican leadership.

MADDOW: The White House admits, as of this month, to authorizing waterboarding. And they say that they authorized it because the way they looked at the law, they’re allowed to do that. It’s legal. Yeah right, but that’s what the White House said. They said, ‘The way we interpreted the law, we thought it was legal and we’re happy that we did it, and it was very useful.’ So Congress has therefore passed something that says, ‘actually, clearly, plainly, obviously this is illegal, if you didn’t think it was illegal before, let us make it more obvious for you.’ And that’s what John McCain voted against. So, in context, and logically, it is a vote for waterboarding because the White House has used this legal explanation, this legal cutthroat explanation, in order to…in order to justify what they admit to having already done. [..]

This decision is so plainly a political decision. This is John McCain reversing himself, not only in terms of being for waterboarding now, but the grounds on which he is for waterboarding. I mean, he’s the guy who made the argument that the Army Field Manual was sufficient. The only thing we need to understand about this is that John McCain made a sudden and otherwise inexplicable change of heart since November. A change of heart that brings him in line with what appears to be the Republican strategy for the general election this year, which is to pick deliberately provocative, deliberately controversial fights on the issues that they want this election to be about. They want the election to be about war, and torture and Guantanamo. So they’re picking fights on those issues, even though they know a lot of Americans disagree with them on these issues. They’re picking fights on those issues so those will be the things we’re talking about around the election because they think that will help Republicans.

Given McCain’s own signed “confession” after four days of continued torture during his own POW days, he knows only too well how false information and confessions can be coerced by torture. And yet, even though it happened to him, he’s unwilling to take a stand against torturing detainees. And why? To fall in line with the Republican party strategy for framing the debate this election season. Yup, there’s a maverick for you. (h/t Crooksandliars)

Why I Believe Bush Must Go by Senator George McGovern

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.

After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.

Today I have made a different choice.

Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising.

But what are the facts?

Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard.

From the beginning, the Bush-Cheney team's assumption of power was the product of questionable elections that probably should have been officially challenged -- perhaps even by a congressional investigation.

In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history.

All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks -- another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson's observation: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world -- more than a billion people.

Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus.

Although the president was advised by the intelligence agencies last August that Iran had no program to develop nuclear weapons, he continued to lie to the country and the world. This is the same strategy of deception that brought us into war in the Arabian Desert and could lead us into an unjustified invasion of Iran. I can say with some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the crucial Middle East for decades.

Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies -- especially the war in Iraq -- have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. Consider the difference between the policies of the first President Bush and those of his son. When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others.

Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In addition to the shocking breakdown of presidential legal and moral responsibility, there is the scandalous neglect and mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The veteran CNN commentator Jack Cafferty condenses it to a sentence: "I have never ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans." Any impeachment proceeding must include a careful and critical look at the collapse of presidential leadership in response to perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.

As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors."

I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won't be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I'd like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin.

There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.

anmcgove@dwu.edu

Rep. Weiner Joins Call for Cheney Impeachment Hearings

I applaud Rep Weiner (NY 9) for taking this stand with fellow grassroots democrats who want Bush/Cheney investigated and held accountable for their high crimes...No one is above the law...Way to go..!

Read original...

On Thursday, Congressman Anthony Weiner told Bob Fertik of Democrats.com that he would sign onto Congressman Robert Wexler's letter to Chairman John Conyers urging the commencement of impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. Wexler, together with Congress Members Luis Gutierrez and Tammy Baldwin, hopes to have a majority of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sign the letter.

Of the four committee members named above, only Baldwin is among the six committee members and 25 total congress members backing Congressman Dennis Kucinich's resolution for the impeachment of Cheney. The other five Judiciary Committee members are Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, Steve Cohen, and Sheila Jackson Lee. If these nine committee members sign the letter to Conyers that Wexler hopes to deliver early in January, another 12 Democrats, not counting Conyers, will still not have joined the position of 80 to 90 percent of Democratic voters.

On November 6th, Conyers himself voted against tabling impeachment. So did Congress Members Brad Sherman, Mel Watt, Bobby Scott, and Artur Davis. If those members heed the call of their constituents, Wexler will have a clear majority of 13-8. The other 8 include the relevant subcommittee chair Jerrold Nadler, plus Congress Members Delahunt, Berman, Boucher, Lofgren, Sanchez, Schiff, and Wasserman-Schultz. Of these, only Nadler signed on, during the previous Congress, to then ranking member John Conyers' resolution calling for a preliminary impeachment investigation.

All of these committee members can be contacted and thanked or encouraged to sign on at

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Impeach Cheney Now

http://www.davidswanson.org

Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America

10 Steps to Fascism
Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America - A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens' groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Declare all dissent to be treason.
10. Suspend the rule of law.

Sound familiar to you..??

h/t to: Yellowcake Walk

Clooney and Pitt mock Larry Craig in the bathroom

Very funny..!

Valerie Plame Wilson | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

Watch video...

Valerie Plame Wilson

The CIA redacted former spy Valerie Plame Wilson’s book - including the part about breast feeding.

Perfected: The Ann Coulter Song

Leah Kauffman - the voice behind "I Got a Crush on Obama" - performs in the music video "Perfected."

Created by Ben Relles
Vocals: Leah Kauffman
Lyrics: Leah Kauffman, Rusty Ward
Director: Tom Small

LiveLeak.com - War Criminal Condoleezza Rice Heckled At Capitol Hill Hearing by Code Pink Oct 24, 2007

An anti-war demonstrator accosted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she arrived to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill, shouting "war criminal" before being dragged away by security.

Members of the Capitol Police department also removed several members of the anti-war group "Code Pink" from the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing room, who struggled as they left.

The hearing began on schedule and Rice's testimony did not appear to be affected by the incident.

CodePink member Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz, her hands painted red, is restrained by members of the Diplomatic Security Service on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, after she confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not pictured, prior to Rice testifying before the House Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)



CODEPINK's Liz Hourican Forcibly Arrested Without Cause




CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin Gets Arrested for Flashing Peace Sign with Fingers


My daughter Madeline with Medea Benjamin at 2006 Brooklyn Peace Fair

Doonesbury: Doonesbury's Take on the Difference Between Larry Craig and David Vitter; Hypocrites in Full Bloom. 9/15

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose

My Damn Channel » Make New Orleans Whole by Harry Shearer..

My Damn Channel » Make New Orleans Whole

YouTube - JFK telling us the 911 truth

YouTube - JFK telling us the 911 truth

JFK was prescient in this speech, it could be about the present Bush Administration...

Video Surfaces of Cheney, in 1994, Warning That An Invasion of Iraq Would Lead to 'Quagmire'

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Video Surfaces of Cheney, in 1994, Warning That An Invasion of Iraq Would Lead to 'Quagmire'

By E&P Staff

Published: August 12, 2007 10:20 AM ET
NEW YORK It's not the first time that citizen "investigative journalists" have uncovered some embarrassing, or telling, nugget from the past that apparently remained buried for years. But it has happened again with the posting of a now wildly popular video on YouTube that shows Dick Cheney explaining in 1994 that trying to take over Iraq would be a "bad idea" and lead to a "quagmire."

The people who put it up come from a site called Grand Theft Country, the on-screen source appears to be the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and the date on the screen is April 15, 1994. That looks right, by the age of Cheney.

Posted on Friday, it had received over 100,000 hits by this morning, after being widely-linked around the Web. The transcript of this segment is below.

Cheney had helped direct the Gulf War for President George H.W. Bush. That effort was later criticized for not taking Baghdad and officials like Cheney had to explain why not, for years. Some have charged that this led to an overpowering desire to finish the job after Cheney became vice president in 2001.

Here is the transcript.
*

Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.

The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families -- it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?

Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.

YouTube - Jimmy Breslin: "Beware the ChickenhawksTOON" v30

YouTube - "Beware the ChickenhawksTOON"

New York Times Blog: 18-Year-Old G.I. From Queens, Killed in Iraq, Is Laid to Rest by Sewell Chan...

Read original at the New York Times Blog:

Pfc. Le Ron A. Wilson, an 18-year-old from Queens who was one of the youngest American servicemen to be killed since the war in Iraq began in 2003, was buried today in Farmingdale, on Long Island, after a funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Springfield Gardens, Queens, The Associated Press reports.

Private Wilson was killed on July 6 when his Humvee was hit with a roadside bomb on patrol in Baghdad. Trained as a weapons mechanic, he was assigned to Third Infantry Division but had volunteered for a weeklong patrol with the 3-7 Cavalry. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

In a dispatch today from Iraq, The Daily News reports on the sorrow of Private Wilson’s fellow soldiers. They said Private Wilson, who is survived by his mother and a 5-year-old brother, grew up poor and believed he could provide for his mother through a career in the military:

“She had a wonderful son,” said Spec. Blake Blann, 22, of Texarkana, Ark., who was Wilson’s roommate at Fort Stewart, Ga. “He was always doing the right thing and making sure everyone else was, too.”

Private Wilson’s father was from Trinidad and Tobago and served in its military. Private Wilson enlisted at age 17, which required his mother’s permission, shortly after graduating from Thomas Edison High School. NY1 reports on the memories of some of Private Wilson’s friends from New York, and WCBS-TV quotes his aunt, Anne Marie Charles, describing him as “a loving child.”

Jim Dwyer is writing a column for The Times, to be published on Wednesday, about Private Wilson’s funeral.